Catalog Search Results
1) Branch Davidians, the Peoples Temple, and Heaven's Gate: The History of 20th Century America's Most
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The United States has never had a shortage of cults based on religious teachings and charismatic leaders, but perhaps none are as infamous as Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple, which remain notorious for the mass murder-suicide event in Jonestown, Guyana on November 18, 1978, during which nearly 900 people drank cyanide-laced Flavor Aid, including nearly 300 children. To this day, "drinking the Kool-Aid" is a popular phrase in America to refer to people...
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About 2,000 years ago, a prophet named John wrote a book about his strange visions while he was in Patmos, a small Greek island in the Aegean Sea. This John, the Seer, the Revelator, was long believed to be one of Jesus's apostles, but recent historians have determined that he was a second-generation disciple. In fact, he was likely a political exile, writing for Christians under the threat of persecution by the Roman Empire, and his book, the Book...
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In September 2012, on a chilly morning, a Russian kid named Yevgeny Zhenya and his dogs were walking to school, when an awful smell made them stop. The 11-year-old wanted to find out what smelled so bad, and with the help of his furry friends, he went to explore the land. They stumbled upon a giant pair of heels that were covered in an immense pile of snow! What could such a giant thing be?
The creature he found turned out to be a 16-year-old mammoth...
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Imagine a feline with the spirit of a lion, the sneakiness of a puma, the terrifying walk of a black bear, and the strong arms of a gorilla. Sounds cool? Now add some huge dagger-like fangs...even cooler, right? This amazing creature was best known as the saber-toothed tiger; an animal so fearless, he could beat beasts even twice their size!
As cool as he sounds, this Ice Age feline earned quite a villainous reputation; you can even see them be the...
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Among all the Native American tribes, the Spanish, Mexicans, and Americans learned the hard way that the warriors of the Apache were perhaps the fiercest in North America. Based in the Southwest, the Apache fought all three in Mexico and the American Southwest, engaging in seasonal raids for so many centuries that the Apache struck fear into the hearts of all their neighbors. What is reliably documented about Cochise is that the violence he participated...
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Hinduism as a religion spans more than 3,000 years, and now it includes nearly 1 billion people. At the same time, it is not a specific term, since there are clear sectarian boundaries, the same way there are differences between Protestantism and Catholicism, and even differences between the various Protestant sects and the various Catholic sects, Hinduism may be broken down into many major sub-groupings that may or may not have much in common at...
7) The Diadochi: The History of Alexander the Great's Successors and the Wars that Divided His Empire
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On his deathbed, some historians claim that when he was pressed to name a successor, Alexander muttered that his empire should go "to the strongest". Other sources claim that he passed his signet ring to his general Perdiccas, thereby naming him successor, but whatever his choices were or may have been, they were ignored. Alexander's generals, all of them with the loyalty of their own corps at their backs, would tear each other apart in a vicious...
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Cave painting falls under the heading of "parietal art," a term used to note any prehistoric art found on the walls or ceilings of caves. It includes five basic types of work, from stencils of handprints, and other hand and finer marks, to a number of abstract signs and symbols, figurative painting, engraving and relief sculpture. It also encompasses all petroglyphs and engravings. The term generally implies prehistoric art as coming from the dawn...
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The creative impetus of organized society in the Fertile Crescent initially came from southern Mesopotamia, where the Sumerians introduced writing and other hallmarks of civilization to the region just before 3000 BCE, but in less than 1,000 years, things changed dramatically. Mesopotamia experienced the rise and fall of the Sumerian based dynasty in Uruk in the early 3rd millennium BCE, followed by the Akkadian Dynasty in the mid-3rd millennium,...
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"The time to sing is when your emotional level is just too high to speak anymore, and the time to dance is when your emotions are just too strong to only sing about how you feel." – Bob Fosse
By the turn of the 20th century, American entertainment was still preoccupied with European-style operetta, as embodied in the works of cellist-composer Victor Herbert. Traditional dance forms moved from European stories to the American prairie in Oklahoma...
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The people that came to be known as Germans originally came from Scandinavia and were mainly shepherds and hunters, but they comprised a number of distinct groups. Within each group, there were separate tribes, and as their populations grew, the land they occupied in Scandinavia was unable to support them, so they began migrating south, settling outside the borders of the Roman Empire. The Germans were fierce warriors who employed rather crude but...
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Naturally, as technological advances and the creation of flying aircraft became realities, the sighting of UFOs increased, as did the interest in potential contact with aliens. While incidents like the one at Roswell led to conspiracies and a craze among those who insisted the government was hiding proof of extraterrestrials’ existence, governments across the world were actually secretly studying UFO sightings by the mid-20th century.
By the end...
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Along the sandy shores and ancient forests of crystal blue Lake Erie, a proud, brave, and confident people lived long ago, building homes, raising crops, hunting game, rearing children, and surviving through harsh winters and hot summers. None of their tribe remains today to tell their story, but their name lives on in the waters of a Great Lake. The Erie Tribe would have been completely lost to history if not for the archeological evidence and archival...
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Over the years, Wall Street has been equally glamorized and demonized for what it represents. To some, this is where lifelong dreams of riches, power, and fast living come to meet. To others, it is the breeding ground of the corrupt and greedy 1%. All the same, its mystique is one that only the most ambitious penetrate.
That said, more people have dipped their toes into the stock and blockchain markets every day, so day trading as both a profession...
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During the 12th century, the people of Ireland came under the sway of the English, who had extended into their domain. With every subsequent century, English dominion in the land gradually expanded, leading to the exceedingly harsh treatment of native Irish populations at the hands of English settlers. The Tudor period was especially tumultuous, with Elizabeth I waging a notoriously expensive conquest against the Irish in the waning years of her reign.
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During the first half of the 20th century, American crowds developed a fascination with foreign actors whose native accents lent an enhanced air of mystery to their on-screen personae. Greta Garbo, Ingrid Bergman, and Marlene Dietrich, all European-born, ruled at the box office. Amid their prolific careers stood the curious case of Hedy Lamarr, acclaimed as the most beautiful star of her time, and living with a professional pastime that looms large...
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The successful Apollo 11 mission was certainly an astonishing technological triumph, but what is less well remembered now are that many programs preceded Apollo and were essential to its success. Project Mercury was one of those, and in many ways it represented the greatest step forward in terms of the conquest of space. Before Project Mercury, there was no certainty that a human could survive the rigors of a space launch or live outside Earth's atmosphere....
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On paper, the extraordinarily unorthodox ideology spouted by Heaven's Gate ranks near the top of the list of most outlandish end-of-the-world prophecies, and it was built on a blend of Christian, Gnostic, supernatural, New Age, and extraterrestrial lore. Although the cult did not speak in Christian terms, it was clearly apocalyptic, and its belief system was a strange mix between science fiction and the basic message of Revelation. The cult's leader,...
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Indulgence is at the heart of modern perceptions of eating and drinking for the ancient Romans. The majority of primary sources depicting food and drink that have survived show rich patricians reclining at a table loaded with exotic foods, and Roman diners are often depicted as gorging themselves over numerous courses served over many hours. Of course, the history of eating and drinking for the wider population within the more than 1,000-year span...
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Imagine a feline with the spirit of a lion, the sneakiness of a puma, the terrifying walk of a black bear, and the strong arms of a gorilla. Sounds cool? Now add some huge dagger-like fangs... even cooler, right? This amazing creature was best known as the saber-toothed tiger; an animal so fearless, he could beat beasts even twice their size! As cool as he sounds, this Ice Age feline earned quite a villainous reputation; you can even see them be the...